


Maintaining Cover

by Hours_Gone_By



Series: Secret Solenoid Fills [1]
Category: Transformers – All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: Alternate Universe – Spies & Secret Agents, Canon Typical Violence, Conspiracy, Deep Cover Agent, Gen, NaNoWriMo 2019, Pre S02E17 Out of the Past, Secret Solenoid 2019, Spies, double agent, secret Decepticon!Cliffjumper, secret agents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:09:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22070827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hours_Gone_By/pseuds/Hours_Gone_By
Summary: Cliffjumper's wince when the Vehicons forced him to his knees wasn't faked; that really had been rough on the gears! Not that they knew any better. Perils of being undercover and all. It didn't hurt enough that he forgot his role, though, and he threw a carefree grin at the mech on her knees next to him."Arcee," Cliffjumper greeted his supposed comrade, treasuring the look on her face. "Been a while."A Secret Solenoid 2019 gift for Zeck (9arco95@twitter).
Relationships: Cliffjumper & Arcee, Shockwave & Cliffjumper
Series: Secret Solenoid Fills [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1588633
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29
Collections: Secret Solenoid '19-'20





	Maintaining Cover

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Zeck](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Zeck).



> A Secret Solenoid 2019 gift for Zeck ( 9arco95@twitter). The prompt was "Any continuity, Shockwave &Cliffjumper, secret Decepticon!Cliff."

Cliffjumper was on the outskirts of the Beta Aquarii system, heading out, when his commanding officer sent an encoded message summoning him back to Cybertron. Seeing as he was running solo at that point, it was no problem to ditch his current mission and head back to Cybertron. He hadn't been having much success looking for forgotten Autobot tech anyway and even if he had been enjoying the downtime, he hadn't exactly signed up for this gig because of the vacation plan. Back planet-side, HQ was pretty well guarded, even if the planet was mostly dead. It took a couple of joor, but eventually, Cliffjumper found a window of opportunity and stealthed his way into the command centre to get his new orders.

Once he was inside the base, though, it was a lot easier. Looked like no one was expected to make it past the perimeter – that, or his CO had made sure the way was clear for him. He still went carefully – force of habit – but gave that up once he reached his boss's lab. Sending a signal to the door, Cliffjumper sauntered into Shockwave's presence and didn't salute.

"You wanted to see me, boss mech?" Cliffjumper asked cheerfully.

Shockwave, of course, didn't respond to this casual greeting or bother with one of his own, getting right into the ore of it.

"We have intercepted an encrypted transmission that has been authenticated as coming from Optimus Prime. Starscream has captured the Autobot called Arcee and will attempt to extract the means of decoding this transmission from her. A logical examination of the situation, accounting for the individual temperaments of both mecha, indicates that he will fail unless the Autobot is given some reason to surrender the information. A threat to a comrade is one of the more likely scenarios. You will be captured and play the part of this comrade."

"Arcee, huh? Haven't seen her in a bit. Don't know if she'll go for it, though," Cliffjumper warned. "I heard she's kinda hard to get near after Airachnid snuffed her last partner."

"Perhaps. However, if appealing to the Autobot's disinclination to see harm come to another fails," Shockwave continued because, of course, he had an alternate plan, "Starscream will need to seek another means of extracting the information. He will, inevitably, fail, and logic dictates he will come to me to obtain the use of the cortical psychic patch."

"Ouch," Cliffjumper commented. "Heard about that thing. Doesn't exactly sound fun."

Shockwave's one-opticked gaze bored into him. "Fun is not its purpose."

"Yeah, I bet." Not really. Shockwave wouldn't know fun if it walked up and gave a logical presentation as to why he should engage in it. "Okay, well, I can give it a shot. No promises, though."

"Promises are unnecessary. You have been given your orders."

"Yeah, alright, well," Cliffjumper shrugged. "Get me up there, boss."

A little while later, Cliffjumper was 'captured' by Vehicons while 'intruding' on Decepticon territory (read: standing outside and being so obvious even drones couldn't miss him.) They didn't know he was one of Shockwave's, but at least they didn't rough him up too badly. They took him up to the _Nemesis_ and up to the bridge, where Cliffjumper could hear Starscream – oh joy – laughing and taunting someone from outside the doorway.

"Perhaps you will be more inclined to cooperate when it is not your own well-being at stake."

That was a perfect cue, and the Vehicons brought Cliffjumper onto the bridge like their entrance was scripted. It was just too bad they didn't know it was a performance. Cliffjumper's wince when the Vehicons forced him to his knees wasn't faked; that really had been rough on the gears! Not that they knew any better. Perils of being undercover and all. It didn't hurt enough that he forgot his role, though, and he threw a carefree grin at the mech on her knees next to him.

"Arcee," Cliffjumper greeted his supposed comrade, treasuring the look on her face. "Been a while."

"Give me the encryption code," Starscream snarled nastily, looming over them, "or I will add your comrade Cliffjumper to the multitude of fallen Autobots below."

"Scrap him," Arcee said dismissively. "I barely know the guy."

"Ouch," Cliffjumper protested and muttered, "glad I'm not the sensitive type."

"Cybertron is little more than a graveyard now," Starscream continued, implying there wasn't anything worth protecting left. Like the planet _itself_ wasn't what all this scrap was about. "Give me the code!"

"I'm not afraid of you, Starscream," Arcee said and added, "you're no Megatron."

Starscream roared in fury – geez, someone here _was_ sensitive! - and slashed at her. Even restrained and on her knees, she was fast, though, and dodged.

After that, it was the usual Screamer dramatics: threats, growling, dragged off separately for interrogation, yeah yeah. Cliffjumper put up with it for long enough to make a point then put himself offline just so things could get going. The Vehicons hauled him off to put him 'with his friend' as Starscream put it, and Cliffjumper let them pull him by the arms. Hey, less effort he had to put into things, plus it'd look good, right?

This time when they brought him to a doorway, the Vehicons didn't bother dragging him through, just tossed him into the cell so he skidded face-down across the floor.

Ugh. He was really going to have to have a word with the management after this about how they let the employees treat their guests.

"Cliffjumper?" Arcee asked anxiously. "Are you…?"

Cliffjumper groaned theatrically. "I can't – " He pushed himself up to look at her and gave her a cocky grin. " I can't believe you actually care."

Arcee frowned at him as he got up and walked over to bang on the walls, looking for a weak point. The first duty of every prisoner was to escape, right? "The only thing I care about is whether you talked just now."

"Are you always this nice to your rescuers?" Cliffjumper teased.

Arcee, following him across the cell, would not be deterred. "Didn't answer my question."

Cliffjumper shrugged. "I got bored with Starscream's little workout. So I idled my engines and faked shutdown. Scream bought it."

Of course, Cliffjumper had some black ops-style mods that had helped his little act along, but he wasn't about to let an Autobot know about those.

"How did you wind up here?" she wanted to know.

"Intercepted some chatter about a Decepticon operation on the old home planet. So I follow the trail and find Starscream shipping massive amounts of Energon here to Cybertron. What's your story?"

"Same."

Oh, this one was going to be fun to needle, especially since she'd read it as him trying for friendly banter. He grinned down at her, enjoying being taller than someone for once. "You're quite the conversationalist."

After that, she clammed up. No problem. Cliffjumper could keep a pretty steady monologue up all on his own, though it was nice to have an audience, even if it wasn't a very interactive one. He had a purpose to it, though: she thought he was a fellow Autobot, and if Cliffjumper played his cards right, he just might be able to get her to spill some useful intel. But she must have been paranoid about listening devices or something, and she didn't give anything up.

Stubborn little 'bot. He was kinda starting to like her. It'd be too bad if Shockwave fried her processors with the patch, but then again, it'd also be one less Autobot to worry about.

After a few joor of that, the Vehicons came back, cuffing their hands behind their backs and taking them to the transport. Cliffjumper kind of questioned the wisdom of spending the energy to bring them _up_ here just to send them back _down,_ but fuel accounting wasn't part of his mission. That was Starscream's problem. They didn't even land in the base itself, they had to walk a bit.

"So, this is Kaon, huh?" Cliffjumper said conversationally, while he was being marched through the streets with his hands tied behind his back. "Love what you Decepticons have done with the place." Even if most of the damage had been thanks to retaliatory raids. "The ruins are especially picturesque."

Cliffjumper mostly tuned out Starscream's ranting until they got hauled into a new interrogation chamber, and Cliffjumper saw the playthings Scream had set out for this little get-together. Starscream, who didn't _know_ Cliffjumper was deep-cover. Great.

"We may be in more trouble than I thought," Cliffjumper said to Arcee, dropping the cheerful act. Okay, he liked a fight, didn’t mind taking the hits, but torture was another thing altogether.

Cliffjumper didn't feel any more relieved once they were introduced to their interrogator. He just hoped Shockwave would find it illogical to heavily damage or terminate a deep-cover asset Cliffjumper just had to stay useful and not get himself into a position where it would be 'logical' to off him. Cliffjumper made sure to keep up the worry and then fear for and anger on behalf of his 'comrade' while Shockwave went to work on the Autobot with the patch. At least Cliffjumper could be sure that if the Autobot's drives got fragged, Shockwave wouldn't turn around and use the patch on him. No reason to. Cliffjumper didn't actually have that encryption code. He'd managed to miss out on the update that contained it, one of the perils of being out in the middle of nowhere, and Shockwave knew it, or he'd have just ordered Cliffjumper to hand it over.

Of course, Shockwave might fry him anyway just to make it look real for Starscream.

As it turned out, Cliffjumper didn't have anything to worry about. The patch worked, and Cliffjumper heard the Prime's voice for the first time in vorns. Mech might be an enemy, Cliffjumper reflected, but he sure could give a speech.

" _This is Optimus Prime. To all surviving Autobots who hear this message, I ask you to join me in a remote corner of the galaxy, on a small planet rich with Energon._

" _I have reason to believe this world will soon become a new target of Decepticon conquest. Our team is small but strong. Join me at these coordinates so that we might plan our resistance. Safe journeys._ "

Shockwave sent new orders on a comm-burst once he message finished playing, while Starscream rattled on for a bit.

' _The Autobot captive is still online and may still have her neural net intact. She will undoubtedly attempt to escape and perhaps terminate Starscream in doing so. You will maintain your cover until she succeeds or fails in the attempt. Do not deviate, regardless of what occurs._ '

' _You got it, boss._ ' So they were sticking with the story until the bitter end, huh? Cliffjumper could handle that – though he did _not_ think 'handling' would include his boss holding a gun to his head, literally. But the thing didn't even have time to warm up before Starscream demanded the chance to kill Cliffjumper and Shockwave left him to it.

Alone with Starscream and Arcee, who'd obviously not gotten fried and was playing roboto-possum, Cliffjumper made sure to distract Starscream by talking until she could do her thing. She did it pretty well, too: Autobot or not, he couldn't help admiring her skill, not only managing to take Starscream out but to get him cuffed to a plinth as well. Proving he was all screech and no snap, Starscream gave in pretty quick. Hearing that Shockwave had a _space bridge_ that he was about to get up and running was a bit of a shocker. Cliffjumper could see the kind of tactical and strategic advantage that would give the Decepticons, especially since there was no way the Autobots, long-scattered by now, could make one themselves. So _that_ was why Shockwave'd stayed on Cybertron all this time!

"And you just delivered all the energon he needs to power it up," Cliffjumper said. Look, he was no Shockwave, but he was no slouch in the old processing department either.

"While it often pains me, I try to be a team player," Starscream grudgingly admitted, without a single hint of irony.

Fellow Decepticon or not, Cliffjumper was kind of sorry Arcee got to punch Starscream in the face first.

"Going somewhere?" Cliffjumper asked her as she turned and stalked off.

"To take down a space bridge."

Ambitious. Cliffjumper wondered what her plan was going to be.

Turned out, once he convinced her to take him along, her plan was to use Cliffjumper as a distraction-slash-bait while she took down the computer that controlled the space bridge.

"Uh, excuse me?" Cliffjumper called out, genuinely enjoying himself as he sauntered into the lab with the space bridge. He'd always wanted to be an actor, after all! "I got separated from the tour group. Does anyone know where I can find the Decepticon base?" No surprise, the drones aimed their weapons at him. "Whoa! Didn't Commander Starscream tell you?" Cliffjumper asked the Vehicons, aware of Arcee sneaking past them – they _had_ to start making those guys smarter! – and start messing with the space bridge controls. "I'm on your side now."

He chuckled to himself while the drones looked at each other, unsure. 'Now?' Always had been! There hadn't been room for Cliffjumper on Cybertron before the revolution, he didn't trust the Prime to make sure there was afterwards either.

"That coward Optimus Prime turned tail and ran," he continued, and the bitterness in that wasn't faked. Soon as the 'Bots realized the war really wasn't gonna go their way, they'd taken off. "Left the rest of us Autobots to fend for ourselves. So much for camaraderie, huh? Figured I'd rather be on the winning team," and that was the whole truth, "so I took Starscream up on his offer. Imagine the look on Prime's face when it starts raining Decepticons – me with them. Really, I know all about Starscream's plan. We can all get along now." The Vehicons focused on something behind him, and Cliffjumper stopped trying to convince them. "There's someone behind me, isn't there?"

"Only Starscream could fail to dispose of a helpless captive," Shockwave said, managing to sound irritated.

Scrap. How were they going to play this out? With only one Autobot there and no easy way out of the room past Shockwave and the drones, was Shockwave going to keep Cliffjumper's cover or just have Arcee dealt with and head to this Earth place?

As if on cue, the space bridge started to make noise.

"Uh," Cliffjumper said uncertainly, gesturing toward it, "is it supposed to sound like that?"

Shockwave bashed him out of the way in answer, running over to the computer in the closest thing to a panic anyone was ever likely to see from him. Shockwave threw Arcee out of the way – Cliffjumper didn't see where she landed – and that was when the Vehicons jumped him. There was still no sign of Arcee, but Cliffjumper wasn't going to bet on the two-wheeler being gone.

' _As the war will not come to a definitive end while Optimus Prime survives,_ ' Shockwave told him, ' _you will continue your role. Prime has proven difficult to destroy in the past. You will be bridged to Earth and infiltrate the Autobot unit stationed there._ '

' _You got it. Gonna make it look real, though._ '

Really, Shockwave'd pointed a gun at him and smashed him out of the way pretty hard, so Cliffjumper didn't feel even a _little_ bit bad about it. Besides, the blasts just splashed off the big guy's reinforced armour anyway. Hitting the space bridge computer was a mistake, though. Oops. Hopefully, Shockwave'd fixed things first.

 _'My proximity sensors tell me the Autobot has survived. While I do not have her precise location, it seems we will indeed need to 'make it look real.''_ Shockwave managed to get Cliffjumper down on the ground in the end anyway. "There is more than one way to nullify a neural net."

Gun-to-the-head again. Great. If Cliffjumper survived this, they were going to have to have a talk about Shockwave's personnel management techniques.

"Not this time," Arcee snarled from the background and shot and collapsed a couple tonnes of rock on Shockwave before running over to help Cliffjumper up. "Cliff?"

Cliffjumper pulled himself to his feet. "I knew you cared." And, weirdly, it kinda felt like she really did. He didn't get a chance to comment on it any further, though, because Starscream showed up.

"It appears Shockwave's arrogance was his undoing," Starscream said with smug satisfaction and a complete lack of self-awareness.

 _And_ a complete lack of awareness about Cliffjumper's position. No _way_ would Screamer believe Cliffjumper was undercover after today and without Shockwave around to correct things – yeah, it was starting to look like sticking with Arcee was his best bet for survival right now. Stay here, and Starscream would probably just kill him anyway.

"Destroy them!" Starscream barked.

Cliffjumper and Arcee ducked behind cover as the shooting began, and the space bridge started making that weird noise louder and faster. That…could be a problem.

"Autobots!" Starscream, ahead of the game for once, snarled. "Whatever you did to the space bridge, undo it now!"

"They should really stop shooting at us if they want our help." Plus, getting shot at by his own guys was starting to get a little annoying, even if most of them didn't _know_ they were his own guys. Well, it didn't look like he was getting out from undercover today, so… "Seeing as how our exit is blocked, and we have an open space bridge portal currently set for Prime's location…" They both glanced at the space bridge then back at each other, and he held up a hand in invitation. "You with me?"

It took her a few nano-kliks of consideration, but eventually, she took his hand.

While they were having their moment, chaos kept unfolding.

"The space bridge! It's going to blow!" Starscream again, probably about to turn tail and save his own hide. Although admittedly, right now, that didn't seem like a bad plan and so Cliffjumper and Arcee took off through the space bridge.

A cannon blast screamed between them and impacted the space bridge floor just ahead. They skidded to a stop, spinning around to face the source of the threat.

Shockwave. Cliffjumper had no idea how the mech had survived the rockfall. It _should_ have crushed him. Shockwave kept shooting at them, clearly not interested in explanations, protecting his operative, or much other than revenge.

"Give it everything you got!" Cliffjumper shouted, firing on Shockwave in concert with Arcee, only to get knocked down. He pushed himself up just in time to see Arcee dodge the next shot and get Shockwave dead-centre in the optic.

"Whoo! Bull's-eye!" Cliffjumper crowed in delight. Hey, that had been a great shot! Plus, he was still a little miffed over the whole 'gun to the head twice,' 'smacking him aside,' and, oh yeah, 'firing on him' things. But there wasn't a whole lot of time to appreciate it because Shockwave, clutching his optic, began firing wildly and all they could do was make a run for it before he landed a hit or the space bridge destabilized.

Cliffjumper spent a few nano-kliks lying on his back, feeling the warmth of an alien sun on his faceplates. The ground beneath him was gritty, made out of rough, rocky particles instead of smooth metal. It felt almost, but not quite, like the Sea of Rust.

The space bridge had failed. Cliffjumper wondered if he'd ever get back to Cybertron. Not that he really wanted to go back to the Sea of Rust, but…

"Think Shockwave survived?" Arcee asked, lying nearby and staring up at the alien sky as well.

Cliffjumper chuckled. "Hope so. I want a rematch."

"Let's find Optimus," she held out a hand, "partner."

He took her hand and let her pull him to his feet. They walked off, grit crunching under them, and Cliffjumper wondered how he was going to get word back to Cybertron without giving away his identity and who he should give it to. Shockwave might have survived the rockfall but Cliffjumper was pretty sure he hadn't survived the space bridge coming apart. No one had heard from Lord Megatron in stellar-cycles, and so there wasn't anyone left for Cliffjumper to report to. He could give himself away to Starscream, but that pretty much guaranteed he'd get caught up in some plot or another, and if and when Megatron came back, that might not be the best place to be. Probably best to wait, he mused, follow his last orders, gather intel and see what happened.

"Rich with energon, huh? Hope the whole rock doesn't look like this. Reminds me of the time I was lost in the Sea of Rust back on Cybertron, except I was separated from my unit with absolutely no one to talk to."

"Talk at?"

Cliffjumper grinned: he'd gotten her to tease back. He was _in_.

"Admit it! You love the company!"

**Author's Note:**

> Episode dialogue from the transcripts at [Springfield! Springfield!](https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/view_episode_scripts.php?tv-show=transformers-prime-2010&episode=s02e17)


End file.
